Time Slips By
by johnnycakex3
Summary: Where are the members of The Outsiders now? Set twenty years after the book. Sort of an overdone topic, but I wanted to try it.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimers:** Sadly, I do not own any of the members of The Outsiders. They belong to S.E. Hinton.

I do, however, own the characters that you don't recognize.

I'm not sure if I'll do this for any other characters; leave me a review telling me if you'd like to see Two-Bit's, Steve's, and Cherry's _'Where Are They Now?'_.

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_Where Are They Now?_

Ponyboy Curtis 34 - After Johnny Cade's death, Ponyboy became very reclusive. Slowly, he let his life adjust without his two old friends, Johnny and Dallas. He started putting everything he had into his schoolwork, which benefited him greatly. Throughout high school, he dealt with gang violence less and less. He detached himself from the gang, excluding Darry and Sodapop. He stopped taking part in rumbles and fighting, and started becoming a model student. He had few friends; he tried not to become too attached to people, because in his mind, actually caring about someone was almost a weakness. What Dally had told him played in his mind frequently - "Get tough like me, and you don't get hurt"

That's what Ponyboy did, but in a different way. He drew himself away from everyone and everything that could hurt him. He dealt with emotional issues all through high school, becoming depressed and nearly suicidal. However, all his hard work and good grades paid off - at eighteen, he was given a scholarship to NYU, where he chose to study psychology. Now, at thirty-four, he has become a family man. He met his wife - Alison Grunlin - at NYU, and they slowly fell in love. As Ponyboy started to let down his walls and started to let Alison get to know him, they both knew there was a strong connection. After dating all through college, Pony proposed to her. They now live in Oklahoma City with three children - Jonathan (lovingly nicknamed Johnny), Kaila, and Dallas. Gang violence is not a part of his children's lives.

Ponyboy became a psychologist for teenagers, working in a juvenile correction facility. He helped teenagers that had gotten into deep trouble with the law, and he tried to help them turn their lives around. Every kid he helped, he could feel Johnny grinning at him from somewhere. Pony had stayed gold - and he was helping keep other people gold. In a way, he felt that he was helping Dally. He saw a young Dally in every kid that he helped. He liked the feeling.

Pony ended up staying in touch with each member of the gang, despite how detached he had become to them. They started a tradition; Greasers Annual Family Reunion. Some chapters just never close, Ponyboy had eventually decided.

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Sodapop Curtis 37 - After dropping out of high school, Sodapop realized that there wasn't much he could do with his life. He ended up going back to high school shortly after turning seventeen, and managed to graduate with a high school diploma just before turning ninteen. He continued working at the DX as he went through high school, working any hours he could manage. Darrel encouraged him, and Sodapop knew he was proud that he had decided to go back to school. 

At age twenty, as Ponyboy was getting ready to go to NYU, Soda enrolled himself into a community college in Tulsa. He started going by his middle name, Patrick. He took classes in social work, and eventually became a social worker, working with underprivilaged children.

At age twenty-five, he met and married a girl named Ellie Brice. Ellie had an infant daughter, Samantha, from a previous boyfriend. The boyfriend had run out on her after finding out that she was pregnant. Soda legally adopted Samantha, becoming her father. When Soda was twenty-seven, Ellie gave birth to beautiful baby boy. Soda picked the name; Darrel Michael.

Soda and family now live in Albany, New York, where Ellie originally grew up.

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Darrel Curtis 40 - Sadly, Darrel never fulfilled his hopes of getting an education. Shortly after Ponyboy left for college, Sodapop started renting a (cheap) apartment, with Steve Randle as his roommate. No longer needed to be a guardian, Darry wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life. He decided to get out of Tulsa - he also hoped that when Soda was through at the community college, he would follow in suit. Darry moved out to Oklahoma City, where he ended up becoming a trucker for Grandly Gravel. 

A few months into his job, he met his boss's niece, Sara Anderson. Sara had just finished her education at Arizona State University, and had decided to move back to her hometown (Oklahoma City). Until she could find a job, she stayed with my boss, working as a "fill-in-secretary" in his office. Darry started spending more and more time with her, quickly falling in love with her free spirited personality. She admitted to being "something of a hippie" back in her teenage years, which Darry found humorous. After knowing each other for a year and a half, Darry asked if she would marry him. She said yes. Soon, however, she landed a job in New York City as a prosecutor with a big law firm. They moved to New York, and Darry started searching for a job there.

Soon, the couple found that Sara could not give birth - resulting in the adoption of two little girls, Leah (five-years-old), and Jasmine (six-years-old). Sara's job brought in enough money, so Darry became a stay-at-home father. This was the arrangement for four years.

Then things started crashing down - Sara was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she came close to death quite a few times, she survived the three-year battle with the disease. When the cancer finally appeared to be gone, Sara was too weak to go back to working. She didn't have the fight in her anymore, and she became a stay-at-home mom. However, Darry could not find a job that would pay for their city home - they found themselves moving back to Oklahoma City, where Sara's uncle gave Darry his old job back.

Darry now lives ten minutes from Ponyboy, and their families are very close. Things weren't easy, but life wasn't bad. For once, Darry was pretty satisfied with how things were turning out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** No, I don't own the characters that you recognize. I do own the ones that you don't recognize, however. Yay me.

**Random:** Thanks for the awesome reviews on the first chapter! That really made me feel like getting a second chapter up, and I hope you like this one too. I'm thinking I'll make one more chapter after this. Thanks guys!

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_Where Are They Now?_

Steve Randle 37 - As the gang started fizzling out (mainly due to Ponyboy's detachment, and the deaths of Johnny and Dally), Steve started hanging around with Tim Shepard more and more. Eventually, Steve became one of their gang. That was Steve's problem; when his original gang started breaking up, he realized he didn't know how to stand on his own two feet. Shepard's gang took him in, and for a year or so, things were okay for Steve. However, when Shepard was sent to prison for murder, that gang also broke up.

Steve still had a strong friendship with Sodapop Curtis, even though they had seen very little of each other over the past year. However, Soda ended up offering to share an apartment with Steve. Steve gladly accepted, but was still unsure about what to do with himself. He was still working at the DX, fixing cars, but he knew he couldn't do that all his life. While Soda worked for his degree, Steve tried to analyze his life and find his priorities. He was tempted to find another gang, but after some hard thinking, he realized that that was not what he needed. He didn't want to end up like Tim Shepard. Instead, he started looking for a job as a mechanic - a better paying job than the one at the DX.

He soon found a garage that had a mechanic that was willing to let Steve become an 'apprentice' for him. After working there for a year, Steve was able to open his own garage - Randle Rolling Co. The shop was in small town called Groundlen. Steve started renting a tiny apartment there, still keeping in touch with Sodapop, and even Ponyboy and Darry, who lived only an hour or so away.

At thirty-three, Steve met a woman named Claire Vaughnly. They quickly fell in love and, after only knowing each other for five months, got married. Their first child was born two months premature, and died a day after birth. devastated, they waited a year before trying again. Their second try resulted in a healthy baby girl, which Steve demanded be named Claire in honor of her mother.

Two years after little Claire was born, her mother was in a terrible car crash. Claire Sr. became paralyzed from the waist down, and confined to a wheelchair for life. Steve's love for her did not die, however, and they remain in Groundlen, still a family despite the horrible car accident.

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Two-Bit 38 - After giving up in high school when he still hadn't graduated at age nineteen, Two-Bit left Tulsa with a girl he had met in school. Shasta Landing and Two-Bit drove all the way across the country to California, where Shasta proceeded to dump Two-Bit, having only used him for the car - she didn't own one herself, nor did she have a license yet (despite being eighteen). 

Not knowing what to do and being away from anyone he knew, Two-Bit ended up joining a tough street gang in a trashy LA suburb. Living in regret and remorse, Two-Bit became less witty and more silent. He started going by Keith, realizing he no longer lived up to his nickname. A year passed, and tragedy struck. In the middle of a bad rumble, Two-Bit nearly killed a member of the rival gang. He was caught and prosecuted, receiving five years in prison.

After those five torturous years ended, Two-Bit was hardened, but hadn't given up hope for his life. He found a way back to Tulsa, finding that none of the gang still lived there. Determined not to let a pessimistic attitude defeat him, Two-Bit decided to try and find work in Tulsa. He got distracted by the once-lovely Cherry Valance, who still lived in town. Once the two had met up and aroused old memories of how life used to be, they started spending more and more time together. Two-Bit had started working at the DX, barely making enough money to get by. Cherry worked in a hair salon downtown, which paid well enough, but wasn't what she wanted to do with her life. With help and encouragement, Cherry and Two-Bit slowly started a relationship.

After a year, they married - much to their own surprise. Cherry brought life back into Two-Bit, and Two-Bit restored hope back into Cherry. As Cherry started to build her career, Two-Bit started looking for better work. He found it in Groundlen, Oklahoma at Randle Rolling Co. While in LA, Two-Bit had learned a thing or two about cars. He persuaded Cherry to move to Groundlen, and quickly became head mechanic of Steve's garage.

Cherry and Two-Bit never got around to having children, as Cherry filed for divorce a few years into their marriage.

Two-Bit started letting himself get down, ending up with a severe alcohol addiction. He met another girl, a trashy girl named Carla Kinsman, and they ended up having a child, a little boy that they named Julian. However, Carla died during birth. Realizing that it was now solely up to him to raise Julian, Two-Bit enrolled himself into a rehab for a month, leaving a very young Julian in the care of Steve and his wife. After straitening up, Two-Bit became an ideal father. He also became living proof that if you stick out the bad things, something good will come - because Julian is the best thing that Two-Bit ever had.

* * *

Cherry Valance 37 - Cherry became very drawn away after Bob's death. She tried many times through the rest of high school to talk to Ponyboy about what happened, but each time he blew her off. She soon gave up - not just on Ponyboy, but on life in general. Her parents expected her to go on and make a place for herself in the world; she didn't feel like putting in the effort. Her grades started slipping, and she lost interest in all of her favorite things; cheerleading, friends, her classes. Soon, she was desperate for a way out. 

Her parents decided to send her away to an exclusive beauty school in New York City. She studied there, though without any interest. Either way, she threw herself into her schooling and learned what she need. When that education was done, she returned to Tulsa, finding work in a downtown salon that paid well. Her parents had by now given up on her, and rarely tried to get together with her. They had moved to California, for an "early retirement" as they put it.

After a few years of pointless living, something happened that made Cherry remember who she used to be. She met up with Two-Bit Mathews, the lighthearted jokester of Ponyboy's old gang. He didn't look the same, and she soon found out why. Five years in prison had taken the sparkle out of his eyes, along with the good humor of his personality. She found herself relating to him; in a way, she had also been imprisoned the last couple of years. She had imprisoned herself behind her regrets and depression. Both Cherry and Two-Bit let down their guard, and they fell in love.

After marrying and moving to Groundlen, Cherry became restless once again. She didn't know why, but she wasn't happy. She filed for divorce three years into her marriage, then moved to Arizona. She didn't keep in touch with anyone from Oklahoma, and started going by her natural name, Sherri. She ended up marrying a Mr. Alan Graves, a divorced man with four children. She treated them as her own, and was a big help in raising them - their mother wasn't in the picture, for the most part.

Cherry had been searching for her place for a long time, and she was very happy to have finally found it.


End file.
